Taylor’s new police chief wants to build bridges with the community by preventing crimes instead of always responding to them.
That was one of the many high points of an address by Joseph Chacon July 20 during the Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon at First Baptist Church.
Chacon, who was sworn in as the city’s top cop April 8, talked about his vision for the Taylor department, a much smaller force than his last assignment.
Prior to his current stint, Chacon was with the Austin Police Department for 25 years, including the last two as chief.
“Policing is not something that’s done to a community, it’s something that’s done with a community,” Chacon said. “The police are the public; the public are the police. Many departments have lost sight of that.”
Chacon told the audience he is an advocate for community policing, an approach that is proactive instead of reactive, relationship-focused and “community-driven.”
He added, “The goal is not simply responding to calls but reducing recurring problems.”
The chief also provided some departmental updates, including seven vacancies on the force of 34 sworn officers.
“We’re working to fill those,” Chacon said. “We have to make sure that the people we hire have the right heart for this position and they’re a good fit for the Taylor Police Department and the community.”
Chacon said many of the U.S. police traditions can be traced back to Sir Robert Peel of the United Kingdom in 1829.
“The United Kingdom system inspired the colonial night watches in the northern U.S.,” Chacon said, adding it was a different story south of the Mason-Dixon Line and one that has created 160 years of wariness regarding law enforcement.
“In the South, police were used as slave patrols. This is where much of the distrust in our communities comes from. If we don’t remember that, then shame on us,” said Chacon, an El Paso native. “We need to make sure we never revert back to that type of behavior.”
Chacon also touched on several national incidents involving encounters between police and Black men that have created a negative public perception of law enforcement in recent years.
“(Those) really shook us up and made us look at ourselves and say, ‘We’re doing it wrong and we’ve got to do better,’” he told the audience.
During his talk, Chacon spoke about the importance of community.
“The most important thing we do – bread-and-butter every day – is responding to 911 calls. There’s nothing more important in what a police department does than that,” the chief said. “When you’re in a crisis, you need to know when you call 911 that somebody is coming.”
What defines a successful police force, he added, “is how safe the residents feel in the community. I work to make sure you feel secure living here.”
More than once, the new chief stressed his support for proactive police work.
“Our job is to make sure that we’re preventing crime. For me, jail is a last resort,” he said. “We should be preventing crime instead of responding to it. We should be proactive instead of reactive.”
The chief said he also believes in empowering the members of his force to act as leaders.
“My philosophy on leadership is we have leaders at every single level of the organization. If you funnel everything to the top, it gets clogged right there,” he said. “We are pushing decision-making down to the levels where it belongs. This is how you build leaders.”
